Revival Fire 4 Kids Vision Statement: Revival Fire 4 Kids seeks to minister to children, families, churches, and those who minister to children through consulting, teaching, holding children’s revivals, and providing resources. We do this in these four ways.

Revival Fire 4 Kids Children’s Ministry Consultant Services: We go to local churches for two weeks to mentor and coach them as they plan an effective ministry for children.

Children’s Ministry Workshops: We go to local churches and conferences to train children’s teachers and workers.

Fired Up Revivals and Kid’s Crusades: Fired Up Revivals and Kids Crusades are exciting, energetic Children’s Revivals to lead children into the presence of God where they will be fired up to be saved, sanctified, Spirit filled, and serving God.

Definitions: Before you can make a vision statement and a mission statement, you need to understand what they are and how they are different.

Mission Statement: Purpose for existence. Why does your ministry exist? What are your core values? Vision statements may change, but a good mission statement shouldn’t.

Vision Statement: States what the ministry will be doing. How is the ministry going to carry out the mission in the future. This statement may change from time to time.

Practical Help: Books have been written to describe how to make mission and vision statements. I’m not going to go into all the information available out there, but if you need help with your vision and mission statements, here are some online resources:

Take Your Time: It may take you a while to come up with effective mission and vision statements. Once you’ve made your statements, it may take months of years before you’ve perfected them. You may want to do some reading about them before you complete your statement. Here are a few good books:

What Next: You could create the greatest mission and vision statements known to man, but if you don’t do anything with them, it’s a waste of time. Here’s the steps you should take after you have these statements.

Write them down on index cards. Then place them on your desk in a clearly visible area. That way, you’ll review the statements often.

Whenever you have an idea for your ministry, compare it with your mission statement. Does your idea reflect what your ministry exists for or is it just a good idea that won’t help your ministry fulfill its purpose.

Like this:

Jeremiah 2:13 (NKJV) For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water.

As children’s pastors, it’s important to keep filling ourselves up. If we continue to pour out without pouring in, we can become spiritually dehydrated and start drinking from broken cisterns. Broken cisterns are things that satisfy us or keep us going for the moment but don’t fill us up or satisfy our thirst. We need instead to drink living water.

Here are 7 ways to know you are spiritually dehydrated.

You have disengaged. Church life is meant to do together. When we are drinking from the living waters of the Holy Spirit, we will want to engage with the church body. When we disengage from the body of Christ, it’s one sign we are spiritually dehydrated.

Your emotions are blunted. If you seem to be in a daze, and you don’t feel the presence of God anymore, that is a sign you might be spiritually dehydrated.

You’ve lost your hope. What do you put your hope in when you wake up in the morning? What are you looking forward to? If you can’t answer, you may be spiritually dehydrated.

You feel helpless. Depression is widespread in our culture today. We now know that most depression has a physical component to it. If you feel helpless and depressed, you should see a medical professional. That being said, the more you are spiritually dehydrated, the more you are susceptible to feeling of hopelessness and depression.

You don’t want to spend time reading your Bible, praying, or worshiping. It becomes a chore. That is a sign of being spiritually dehydrated.

You don’t have any joy. The joy of the Lord is your strength. If your joy has been sapped, it shows you need to be filled from the living fountain.

You are going through the motions. All of the things above can cause us to lose out sense of purpose. When that happens, you can come to the place where you are running on empty. You need your spirit refreshed with living waters from the throne room of God.

What to do if you are spiritually dehydrated:

First admit the truth to God, yourself, and your spiritual leaders or mentors. Don’t be embarrassed or ashamed. Many spiritual leaders have gone through this dark night of the soul. I have. That’s why I can show you what to do. After your leaders know the situation and are covering you in prayer, ask God to fill you with His living waters. Ask Him to fill the dry places of your soul. Spend time saturating yourself in the presence of God. Play worship music. And wait. It might take some time, but God will fill you to overflowing.

Acts 3:19 (NKJV) Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.

John 7:38 (NKJV) He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

Ephesians 3:14-19 (NKJV) For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Ephesians 5:18 (NKJV) And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit.

Psalm 119:18 Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.

2018 is upon us, and one of the greatest things you can do this year is to start a ministry journal. Ministry journals are different than personal journals. You can use them to record valuable information every time you minister. Whatever you want to remember, what you want to improve, how your students responded, etc., you will end up forgetting as soon as life takes over. With a ministry journal, you can look back and refresh those moments.

You can start a ministry journal online and use your phone or IPad immediately after service or you can carry a journal to church. Every time you minister, write in the journal within one hour of service. You don’t have to write a lot, but the information gleaned from these observations will become invaluable to you throughout the year.

Here are some ideas of things to write in your journal:

Successes: Write down any successes such as salvations, a record number of people, responses to the message, etc.

What Worked: If you used an object lesson or a song that really went over well, write it down along with why you think it worked.

Challenges: If anything went wrong or you saw something that needed improved, write it down.

Failures: If you believe you failed in some way, write it down. But don’t beat yourself up over it. Instead write down why it failed and go on.

General Impressions: Write down any general impressions you had about the service.

Review what you wrote later in the week. Don’t read your notes on Monday or you’ll become discouraged. But latter in the week, around Wednesday, read your notes about Sunday and see what you can glean from them.

Review your journal quarterly. Read about your successes and record salvations and testimonies to share with the church. Read the failures and challenges to see if you’ve made progress in those areas and what you need to do to improve.

Like this:

Here are some New Years Resolutions for Children’s Pastors to consider making.

1 I will make my relationship with God a greater priority than the ministry God has given me. I do this knowing I can’t introduce children to God when I don’t spend any time with Him.

2 I will be filled with joy this year knowing that the Joy of the Lord is my strength.

3 I will ask God to help me love children who irritate me and cause behavior problem with the same love He has for them.

4 I will first ask for a revelation from God before I deliver any lesson or message to my students.

5 I will pray and seek God’s guidance in what direction to go in my ministry instead of just jumping on board the latest fad I learned at a conference. I will seek God for a word and make sure I focus on that word throughout the year.

6 I will review policies and procedures to make sure students in my ministry are in a safe environment.

7 I will disciple my workers and develop a children’s ministry team instead of being a Lone Ranger in ministry.

8 I will provide opportunities for children to experience God by giving them opportunities to minister, emphasizing worship and discipleship, and providing altar ministry at the end of every message.

9 I will not teach children to be good. I will teach them to know God. There’s a difference.

10 I will evaluate every area of my ministry to see if it follows the other nine resolutions. This may mean we play less games or get rid of snack time. It might mean replacing a teacher who “doesn’t get it.” I might need different curriculum. I might need to nix some “sacred cow” programs. Whatever I need to do, I will make the difficult choices.

Like this:

Every year, I pray to receive a word for the next year. This year, I couldn’t quite figure it out. I knew it would be a year of new beginnings, a year of expanding my territory and doing new things.

It didn’t take much figuring for all of this. Revival Fire for Kids is moving to Georgetown, Tennessee. My husband and I bought 23.6 acres there, and our house is almost finished. The possibilities for being in the middle of the Eastern US, at the buckle of the Bible Belt, and having so much room to do ministry, (ie: kid’s ministry camps, training, retreats, etc). are endless, but that’s not all of it.

I also knew it would be a year where God fills me with abundant joy like I’ve never known. To top it off, I believe the last Great Awakening is coming to our land and will start with children. God is about to pour out His Spirit in unprecedented ways.

That’s when I knew I had it – the word for 2018. My church leadership had decided on the word, unprecedented. When they first came up with that word, I had to mull it over a bit. Now I know, UNPRECEDENTED is not just a word for my church. It is my Word from God for 2018.

What I am expecting from God this year in my ministry, family, and nation, even in the world, is unprecedented in my lifetime. Here’s the verse for it.

Isaiah 43:18-21

“Remember not the former things,nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing;now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wildernessand rivers in the desert. The wild beasts will honor me;the jackals and the ostriches, for I give water in the wilderness,rivers in the desert,to give drink to my chosen people,the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise.”

I’ll talk more about how I believe God is going to do the unprecedented in my life on my blog this week. So how do you believe God will do the unprecedented in your life in 2018?

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Any products Tamera Kraft reviews on this blog have been received as a gift by the author or publisher in exchange for a review on this blog unless otherwise stated. Gifts of products do not guarentee a good review.

Also some products Tamera Kraft reviews have been written by Tamera Kraft and are for sale on Revival Fire For Kids website store. These products' profits go to Revival Fire For Kids ministries when sold.

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